This paper demonstrates how the French government used "nudging" to promote the use of digital tax administration and proposes guidelines on the best use of nudge design for optimal ROI. View Summary

This paper demonstrates how the French government used "nudging" to promote the use of digital tax administration and proposes guidelines on the best use of nudge design for optimal ROI.

Policy makers including governments in the UK and USA have used nudges - any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way, without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives - including to reduce car crashes, increase organ donation and increase retirement savings.

The French government used ethnography to take a user-centric, rather than policy-centric, approach to how users called upon governmental agencies.

With the findings, the government redesigned its website to take into account "life events" search entries and used nudges to allay user's concerns and encourage them to use the internet.

3

Avoid the mobile pitfalls

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Ben Phillips, Admap, May 2014, pp. 32-34

This article discusses some common mistakes in mobile marketing, caused by a lack of strategic understanding of mobile and an over-specialised work force. View Summary

This article discusses some common mistakes in mobile marketing, caused by a lack of strategic understanding of mobile and an over-specialised work force. The common mistakes include: brand websites which are not mobile optimised, a confusing proliferation of brand-related apps, resource mismanagement and a lack of measurement. Further, whilst innovation is essential, obsession with the newest technology can remove focus from the brand's strategy. In order to be successful brands need to foster integration between mobile disciplines and other communications channels, with a rounded knowledge rather than a siloed team.

4

The dark side of automated trading – and how shining a light can save millions in lost revenue

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Jo Bowman , Event Reports, I-COM Global Summit, April 2014

This event report outlines how the increasing complexity of digital advertising is often inadvertently slowing down websites and hitting sales, as an ever greater number of parties place tags on publishers' websites to support their activities around bidding, targeting, serving and tracking. View Summary

This event report outlines how the increasing complexity of digital advertising is often inadvertently slowing down websites and hitting sales, as an ever greater number of parties place tags on publishers' websites to support their activities around bidding, targeting, serving and tracking. Slower load times lead to lost revenue and wasted time in businesses trying to fix this. The report explains how publishers can visualise the intricate digital ecosystems that are living on their platforms, clean up what shouldn't be there and deliver a better user experience for consumers and advertisers.

5

Marketing cars: Driving digital success

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Antony Green, Admap, April 2014, pp. 10-12

This article identifies seven key digital themes in the automotive industry. These themes are: investment in digital communications which help consumers understand the brand, with focus on brand websites and customer reviews; digital showrooming and the changing path to purchase, where consumers research online and buy offline; customer-first integrated service; and maintaining relevance with information and custom features. View Summary

This article identifies seven key digital themes in the automotive industry. These themes are: investment in digital communications which help consumers understand the brand, with focus on brand websites and customer reviews; digital showrooming and the changing path to purchase, where consumers research online and buy offline; customer-first integrated service; and maintaining relevance with information and custom features. Automotive brands should also consider cognitive bias when designing online experiences; be creative in their use of technology; and pay attention to developments in the 'connected car', which has already led to some interesting partnerships.

6

The Gender Gap: Brain-Processing Differences Between the Sexes Shape Attitudes About Online Advertising

Prior research suggested that males are more selective information processors and females are more detailed processors, but effects on advertising attention and attitudes have been largely unstudied. View Summary

Prior research suggested that males are more selective information processors and females are more detailed processors, but effects on advertising attention and attitudes have been largely unstudied. In particular, mere-exposure effects (more favorable attitudes with little or no advertising attention) are expected to be more pronounced for males than for females, due to less comprehensive heuristic processing by males. Furthermore, gender differences in hemispheric (brain) processing are predicted, with males expected to have more favorable attitudes from advertisements on the left of the page and females expected to have more favorable attitudes from advertisements on the right of the page. Hypothesized marketing outcomes are generally supported. Management implications are discussed.

7

Using digital to build your brand: The UK government and Expedia at TFM&A 2014

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Joseph Clift, Event Reports, TFM&A, February 2014

This event report, from TFM&A, a conference organised in London in February 2014, focuses on the digital strategies of two different organisations: the UK government's Cabinet Office, and online travel portal Expedia. View Summary

This event report, from TFM&A, a conference organised in London in February 2014, focuses on the digital strategies of two different organisations: the UK government's Cabinet Office, and online travel portal Expedia. The Cabinet Office is shifting much of its traditional communications functions over to digital media; taking a cost-cutting approach in content and analytics, it has achieved high levels of engagement, and has broken news on Twitter rather than via press releases. Meanwhile, Expedia is using customer data to introduce increasingly sophisticated targeting of users with "serendipitous" offers. Expedia is also making strides in making its advertising more effective via closer targeting - such as introducing addressable TV campaigns.

8

How Pinterest inspired Staples to change its strategy

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, NRF Big Show, January 2014

This event report discusses how Pinterest, the social content-sharing site, and similar platforms have influenced the strategy being pursued by Staples, the retailer, both online and offline. View Summary

This event report discusses how Pinterest, the social content-sharing site, and similar platforms have influenced the strategy being pursued by Staples, the retailer, both online and offline. Firstly, the tile-led design of Pinterest, and the seemingly scattergun way users put images together, led Staples to rethink the way its products are presented to consumers on the web, as embodied by the principle of "asymmetrical retailing" - or grouping goods together by understanding the context in which they are purchased, rather than by brand or category. Secondly, the curation role played by influential users of Pinterest and other such sites can also be applied by retailers - and Staples is doing so both online and in its physical stores.

9

The Science Behind Mobile Design

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Research on Warc, Plastic and True Impact Marketing, December 2013

This report describes a study into the impact of mobile usability and design on mobile commerce user engagement. View Summary

This report describes a study into the impact of mobile usability and design on mobile commerce user engagement. It employed neuroscience to uncover users' attentional and emotional responses to mobile apps. The research identified seven recommendations for brands when refining their mobile offerings. These involve browsing vs. checkout, brand perception before and after using a mobile application, the use of the limited screen real estate on mobile devices, the use of images, and the effect of long load times. Accounting for these factors will help brands optimise their purchase paths and enhance mobile commerce efforts.

10

The Science Behind Mobile Design - Executive Summary

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Melody Adhami, Research on Warc, Plastic, 27 November 2013

This article provides seven recommendations for brands to consider when refining their mobile commerce strategy, based on a study of the user experience of three different mobile apps. View Summary

This article provides seven recommendations for brands to consider when refining their mobile commerce strategy, based on a study of the user experience of three different mobile apps. It is a summary of a longer report (also available on Warc) that uses neuroscience to measure the impact of mobile usability and design on mobile commerce user engagement. The recommendations include: make the checkout stage as easy as possible; apps can influence overall brand perception so must deliver a true-to-brand experience; use screen real estate wisely; and reduce load times as much as possible.

In this study, 36 participants navigated Amazon.com while their on-screen activity and physiological responses were recorded. View Summary

In this study, 36 participants navigated Amazon.com while their on-screen activity and physiological responses were recorded.

An analysis of on-screen activity showed online shopping as a series of transitions between general browsing array pages (e.g.

computers) and specific product pages (e.g.

Apple MacBook).

We recorded physiological responses associated with cognition in the moments following the onset of each page type (general array/specific product).

The onset of specific product pages elicited cardiac orienting responses indicating automatic resource allocation to encoding, while the onset of general array pages did not elicit cardiac orienting responses.

Furthermore, the magnitude of heart rate deceleration during the orienting response was a significant predictor of how much time participants spent on specific product pages.

This demonstrates that the cognitive processes of consumers on shopping websites during transitions between general and specific pages.

These results are explained in terms of cognitive resource allocation during online shopping and exposure to interactive marketing.

12

Developments in ecommerce: Insights from Waitrose, Unilever and Amazon

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Emily Barley, Event Reports, IAB Engage, October 2013

This event report looks at several trends now reshaping ecommerce from the perspective of three leading firms: Waitrose, Unilever and Amazon. View Summary

This event report looks at several trends now reshaping ecommerce from the perspective of three leading firms: Waitrose, Unilever and Amazon. One major shift is the growth in the number of people undertaking commercial activities on mobile devices, which requires a rethink in terms of website design and functionality. Effectively communicating brand values on digital is another challenge for brands and retailers, and Amazon has found that ads based around utility tend to deliver the best results across different screens. Marketers must also be wary of overestimating what big data can achieve: human factors still have an essential role to play alongside the numbers.

13

The Effects of Interface Design of Hand-Held Devices on Mobile Advertising Effectiveness Among College Students in China

Mobile advertising has gained great popularity in China over the past decade. However, there is still a lack of understanding of what factors may influence mobile advertising effectiveness in China. View Summary

Mobile advertising has gained great popularity in China over the past decade. However, there is still a lack of understanding of what factors may influence mobile advertising effectiveness in China. This study employs mobile marketing theories and examines how the interface design of hand-held devices influences mobile advertising effectiveness among college students in China. A survey with 442 undergraduate and graduate students was conducted in Beijing in 2011. Results indicate that the interface design of the hand-held devices, especially the ubiquitous feature, large screen size, advertisement size, and ease of use, will foster a positive emotion, increase Chinese college students' arousal upon receiving mobile ads, and increase purchase intention. Theoretical and practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

14

Ad serving: Viewed ads, not served ads

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Michael Froggatt, Admap, July/August 2013, pp. 42-43

This article makes the case for a new viewability standard for online advertising being championed by an industry consortium in the US, that would ensure advertisers pay for viewable, rather than served, ad impressions. View Summary

This article makes the case for a new viewability standard for online advertising being championed by an industry consortium in the US, that would ensure advertisers pay for viewable, rather than served, ad impressions. Analysis of all rich media ads served globally in September 2012 showed that only 63% were viewable according to the proposed new standard (50% of an ad's pixels in view for at least one second). Moreover, the ads that conformed to this new viewability standard enjoyed a click-through rate that was 54.5% higher than the overall average of impressions served.

15

Leveraging Google+ as a qualitative research platform: case studies and best practices

This paper explores learnings and best practices that have been found from pilots leveraging the Google+ social network for consumer insights research. View Summary

This paper explores learnings and best practices that have been found from pilots leveraging the Google+ social network for consumer insights research. Four pilot studies were conducted around specific audiences with the intention to answer specific types of questions in the wireless carriers and consumer packaged goods categories. The results include findings around recruiting and incentive strategies, user engagement tactics, different audiences and research questions, and the benefits and current challenges to using a social platform for this type of research. Overall, the researchers found Google+ to be a capable and readily accessible platform for qualitative research and feel that the social features open the door to exciting user engagement possibilities.

This research paper explores how four key elements of online video advertising - consumer engagement mode, player size, location on the page and website quality - may affect end users' feelings towards a brand, and whether they inspire or discourage action. View Summary

This research paper explores how four key elements of online video advertising - consumer engagement mode, player size, location on the page and website quality - may affect end users' feelings towards a brand, and whether they inspire or discourage action. Consumer engagement mode (click-to-play vs. auto-play) was found to be the most important element for advertisers to consider when their objective is driving brand awareness. The quality of the website a video ad appears on was found to be the primary driver of brand perception, consumer intent, engagement, and overall satisfaction. The research also found that click-to-play ads elicit nearly four times more positive emotions from consumers than auto-play ads and that larger video players evoke higher levels of brand awareness.

17

Facebook reveal 'new look' News Feed

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Laura Murphy and Charles Warnet, Mindshare, March 2013

This summary article follows Facebook's announcement of a new, more visual and less cluttered look to its News Feed in March 2013. View Summary

This summary article follows Facebook's announcement of a new, more visual and less cluttered look to its News Feed in March 2013.

The main changes are that the News Feed stream will be more prominent, page posts and ads will become more visual, the ability to filter News Feed by Photos, Groups, and Following, and a navigation sidebar with bookmarks and contacts to match look of Facebook mobile.

Customer service in the digital age: Responding to digital disruption and rising customer expectations

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

Deloitte, February 2013

This paper outlines six digital trends that have significant implications for the future of customer service and suggests recommendations for responding to them. View Summary

This paper outlines six digital trends that have significant implications for the future of customer service and suggests recommendations for responding to them. With consumers spending more and more of their time online, social media, smart phones and tablet devices are being adopted faster than ever. Digital customers are now consuming content online and via mobile devices, at breakneck speeds. The sheer pace of technology-enabled change means that we need to explore the way customer service is currently delivered and reassess the role of traditional customer service models.

At the SES Conference, Google's Digital Marketing Evangelist Avinash Kaushik offered up seven steps to smarter digital marketing. Focus on the user experience to reduce abandonment rates (over 80% of people on most ecommerce sites give up after clicking the checkout button). Look at a brand's share of search and how well it captures the convinced and unconvinced consumer. Pick useful metrics to measure success, not "super-lame" ones such as followers and likes. Improve use of analytic tools. Use visualisation tools to see the interplay between multiple channels. Consider the whole audience, not just the small percentage who have found you. Measure engagement on social media through conversation and amplification rates and value per visitor.

20

The Role of Visual Attention in Internet Advertising: Eleven Questions and a Score of Answers

In this article, the cognitive neuroscientist, Adam Greenberg, provides answers to a series of questions on consumers' attention to digital marketing, based on his analysis of a large dataset provided to him by the Advertising Research Foundation. View Summary

In this article, the cognitive neuroscientist, Adam Greenberg, provides answers to a series of questions on consumers' attention to digital marketing, based on his analysis of a large dataset provided to him by the Advertising Research Foundation. Greenberg had no experience of advertising research prior to the exercise, but was selected to provide a fresh perspective given his extensive work in the general field of human attention and cognition (and particularly about how humans control their behavior in response to a visual stimulus and the brain mechanisms this involves). Some of the 11 issues discussed include: How does design affect consumers' engagement with an advertisement? Is clutter a distraction? What is the impact of page placement on attention? Are clicks a good measure of attention? What are the best practices for display advertising?

21

Is that website for me? Website-self-congruency effects triggered by visual designs

This study proposes and tests a moderated mediation model for website–self-congruency effects triggered by the visual designs of websites. View Summary

This study proposes and tests a moderated mediation model for website–self-congruency effects triggered by the visual designs of websites. The model specifies the conditions (i.e. when participants are not involved with the product category) in which website–self-congruency effects emerge, and identifies specific cognitive processes (i.e. generating self-referencing and self–brand connection perceptions) and affective processes (i.e. experiencing positive emotions and browsing enjoyment) that mediate the influence of website–self-congruency effects on attitudes and purchase intentions. The findings of this study support the proposed model and hypotheses, and thereby offer significant implications for research and practice.

22

Is a website known by the banner ads it hosts? Assessing forward and reciprocal spillover effects of banner ads and host websites

While marketers often rely upon banner ads to generate revenues, it is unclear as to how these ads might influence consumer perceptions of host websites. View Summary

While marketers often rely upon banner ads to generate revenues, it is unclear as to how these ads might influence consumer perceptions of host websites. In this paper, we conduct three studies to examine the effect of animation and brand advertised in a banner ad on consumers’ attitude towards a host website, as well as word-of-mouth behaviour. Results of the first study reveal that consumers are irritated with unfavourable banner brands and that irritation, in turn, negatively affects their attitude towards the host website. We demonstrate that banner brand and banner type serve as contextual cues that influence judgements of the host website due to a forward spillover effect. Findings of the second study demonstrate that a host website, corollarily, serves as a context to negatively influence evaluations of favourable brands mainly for animated banner ads – a reciprocal spillover effect. The third study validates and extends the findings of the first study by adopting methodological pluralism through a different approach to stimuli selection and experimental manipulation. Results indicate that, while presence of animation has a negative influence on the host site and WOM behaviour when the brand advertised is an unfavourable one, it neither benefits nor hurts a host website evaluation and WOM behaviour when a favourable brand is advertised. Managerial implications of our findings are also discussed.

23

Measuring and managing the customer experience

Includes video content

Recommended by Warc editors

Trends

Best Practice

David Bailey, Warc Exclusive, Advertising Research, 2012

In today's world of connected consumers, word of mouth is arguably the most powerful form of advertising, which is driven by customer experience. View Summary

In today's world of connected consumers, word of mouth is arguably the most powerful form of advertising, which is driven by customer experience.

This customer experience, in turn, can be determined by a combination of the consumer's brand experience, purchasing experience, usage experience and support experience.

Brands can manage their customer experience by looking at each of these aspects.

This presentation provides examples of how to directly and indirectly measure how well customer experience targets are being met.

24

Online advertising and congruency effects: it depends on how you look at it

Three studies investigate the moderating role of divided attention in the relationship between thematic (in)congruency between a web page and a web ad, and evaluations of and click intention towards the embedded web ad. View Summary

Three studies investigate the moderating role of divided attention in the relationship between thematic (in)congruency between a web page and a web ad, and evaluations of and click intention towards the embedded web ad. The first study establishes the traditional priming effect in sequential web page – web ad exposure. Study two manipulates viewers’ opportunity to divide their attention when simultaneously exposed to a web page and a web ad, and Study three measures divided attention by means of gaze jumps in a simultaneous exposure situation. In the case of simultaneous exposure to a web page and a web ad, a congruency effect occurs when there is little opportunity to divide the attention between the web page and the ad, and when there are few gaze jumps between the web page and the web ad. In these cases, web ads that are thematically congruent with the web page result in more positive responses. This effect reverses when there is more opportunity to divide the attention between the web page and the web ad, and when the number of gaze jumps is high: web ads incongruent with the web page lead to more positive responses. Undivided attention benefits web ads that are congruent with the web page in which they are embedded, but divided attention benefits those that are incongruent with the web page.

25

The High Stakes of Sweepstakes: Too Much of a Good Thing Can Demotivate Digital Consumers

In preference-matching contexts—specifically, where people enter hoping to find some particular product or service they already know themselves to prefer—more choices should increase the likelihood that they will be successful in their search. View Summary

In preference-matching contexts—specifically, where people enter hoping to find some particular product or service they already know themselves to prefer—more choices should increase the likelihood that they will be successful in their search. Increasing the number of choices, however, actually increases the cognitive workload of consumers, and they may decide consciously or unconsciously simply to apply heuristics—such as clicking the delete button on complex e-mails. This study tested these two alternative theories in a large-field experiment focusing on advertising an experience brand (France as a vacation destination) to Americans under multiple treatment conditions. The findings supported the theory that fewer choices increase behavioral responses, but this effect reversed when an e-mail included a sweepstakes offer. Consequently, the authors found that “it depends on what is offered in conjunction with the direct-sales offers” may be the more accurate perspective than the “less-is-more” proposition.